As Chief Information Officers, we must be leaders – leaders of our teams and leaders in our organizations. To be a successful leader, we need to realize key aspects that our leadership must touch upon. These key aspects are people first, technology later; Development of our team; and service to others.
First, we must realize that it is about the people, not the technology. While that is easy to say and understand conceptually, it seems very difficult for us who have built our careers in technology, to understand that it is the people who matter and not the technology that is the primary factor. When we talk with other departments about their IT needs, we focus on solving their problem – not on the technology that can be shoehorned into a solution, the technology that solves the problem, or what technology we can use. This requires listening to understand – not just listening for the opening of our favorite tech solution.
Work with your team to help them as individuals grow in their current role and prepare them for their next role, whatever that may be.
Second, we must develop our team. Invest in our individual team members, build relationships, and help them to forge a path where they can gain new skills and take advantage of their natural talents. This also requires that we challenge them to face their weaknesses and develop those skills they need for future growth in addition to what they need now. Work with your team to help them as individuals grow in their current role and prepare them for their next role, whatever that may be. This allows for the entire team to grow while preparing individuals for future opportunities. Examples of this would include investing in training opportunities – online training providers are relatively affordable and often cover a wide array of topics, creating cross-training requirements within the team, and ensuring that each member has an opportunity to share their knowledge and skills with other team members while also learning from each other. We do this by having each member present a topic of their choice at IT Team meetings on a rotating schedule. So, over the course of a year, each member has multiple opportunities to present to the rest of the team and learn what other IT staff are doing.
And third, remember that IT departments exist as a service to others. Governments are not generally in the Information Technology industry. Governments exist as a service to residents. And IT as a service to the other government departments and possibly to the residents as well. We see the other departments as customers and our attitude must be: How do we make things better for them today? If we are not helping them to solve problems, become more efficient, or lower costs, we have to ask ourselves, what is our real purpose?
In this day and age of instant gratification, quick and easy online shopping, and nearly remote lives, we must lead our IT departments to be more than just simple IT support. We must be agents of continuous improvement and service to help our organizations improve their service to others.
